PLANO, Texas — Dallas police have arrested two people in connection to a sex trafficking ring being run out of a short-term rental home in Plano.
The Dallas Police Department (DPD) said it first received information about the ring in July, which led the detectives to a home located in the 2900 block of Las Palmas Lane in Plano. The investigation led to special investigations detectives executing a search warrant on Sept. 22 with assistance from the Plano Police Department.
Police determined during the operation the home was a short-term rental being utilized for a sex trafficking ring, and detectives arrested Brandy Cliff, 41, for aggravated promotion of prostitution, and Madison Hatcher, 22, on a warrant for assault out of Hays County.
Judi Lombardi lives across the street from the house and had some friends over at the time of this bust.
It was a total shock," Lombardi said. "It's surprising to me that things like that can go on."
The homeowner wasn't the one running the sex trafficking ring because it had been rented out as a short-term rental property.
Bill France is a part of the Plano Texas Neighborhood Coalition. He said short-term rental properties shouldn't be in the city's residential neighborhoods. Since Plano taxes these rental properties as hotels, France said the city's zoning laws should restrict rental properties from being in these neighborhoods.
"Crimes have to happen somewhere," France said. "A perfect place to commit a crime is within a short-term rental. "There's a list of about 170 things that you can't do. You can't have a taco stand, you can't have a transmission shop and you can't have a hotel. All we ask you to do is enforce the laws that are already in our zoning ordinance."
DPD said several other people at the home were also questioned and released.
This is an ongoing investigation.
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